That memory is fragile....
And the space of a single life is brief...
....passing so quickly that we never get a chance to see the relationship between events..
We believe in the fiction of past, present and future...
..but it may also be true that everything happens simultaneously.
Could be too that "the spirits of all eras mingled in space..."
Quoted from Isabel Allende's debut novel "La Casa de los Espiritus" or "The House of the Spirits" published in 1982 and translated to over 20 languages worldwide.
After reading the book, I forgot all about the movie adaptation that captivated me many years ago. The novel is far more compelling and deeply moving than the film that counted as one of my favorites. In the book, the spirit of each character seems to move between the pages, beneath each line that will make you think about the many events, episodes, incidents that unfold each day of your life...why someone so dear, so beautiful, so important to you had to pass away and breathe life only so briefly.
I can go on writing so many things about my experience being so immersed in this book and it took me almost four months to finish reading this in between different events in my life. As a consumed reader of Allende's "The House of the Spirits" that has sparked my deep fascination for two of her strongest characters in the novel: Clara the Clairvoyant and Rosa the Beautiful, I can't help but remember two strong women in the family we lost: my mom Josephine who left us in 2007 and her sister Christina who passed away only last month.
Maybe the Spirits are real...as strongly, as beautifully designed by the author.. to make us value life more, to understand the synchrony of events and embrace the memories of a lost loved one who will always be with us in Spirit...guiding us each day to be what they had hoped for us in life: to be happy and fulfilled in what we do.
Cheers to all the Spirits of our lost loved ones "mingling in space.."
***
Got the book from one of the artsy bookshops along Maginhawa St. in UP Village one scorching summer night of May and finished reading it on a rainy night of September while stranded at Mactan airport. I'm still trying to decipher the relationship of my life's events between the two seasons and ultimately from birth to now.. All have been rocking great so far amidst the highs and lows. But one thing's for sure, my mother's enduring presence in Spirit will always give me that strong inspiration to see and create more beautiful things in life.
